Former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad is furious over team management for continuously backing vice-captain KL Rahul despite his poor form. Prasad's comments come after Team India took a 1-0 lead in the four-match Test series against Australia after dominating performance from Indian spinners – Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin.
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However, the stakes were high for KL Rahul as he hasn't had a great time with the bat. This poor run of form continued as he only scored 20 runs against Australia. Hence Venkatesh Prasad appeared furious over Rahul’s selection and stated that there are more batters, with better records, in line but team management is endlessly backing KL Rahul.
“I have a lot of regard for KL Rahul’s talent and ability, but sadly his performances have been well below par. A test average of 34 after 46 tests and more than 8 years in international cricket is ordinary. Can’t think of many who have been given so many chances,” tweeted Prasad.
The former Indian cricketer further mentioned the names of Shubman Gill, Sarfaraz Khan as a possible replacements. “ Some are just lucky to be given chances endlessly till they succeed while some aren’t allowed to. And to make matters worse, Rahul is the designated vice-captain. Ashwin has a great cricketing brain and should be the vice-captain in the Test format. If not, him should be Pujara or Jadeja. Mayank Agarwal had a far better impact than Rahul in Tests and so did Vihari,” added Prasad.
He also claimed that Rahul’s selection is based on favouritism as he has been ‘consistently inconsistent’ despite playing for over 8 years. According to Prasad, a lot of retired cricketers are not vocal against KL Rahul out of fear of losing IPL gigs as the Indian cricketer is a captain of the IPL franchise Lucknow Super Giants.
“They wouldn’t want to rub the captain of a franchisee wrong way, as in today’s age most people like yes men and blind approvers. Often well-wishers are your best critics but times have changed & people don’t want to be told truth,” added Prasad.
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